46th  Congress,  )  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES.  <  Mis.  Doer. 
2d  Session.      f  \    No.  20. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. — ARGUMENTS  BEFORE  THK  COMMIT- 
TEE ON  THE  JUDICIARY. 


Fkhki  ary  3,  1880.— Recommitted  to  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  and  ordered  to 

be  priuted. 


Washington,  D.  0.,  January  24,  1SS0. 

Tlie  Chairman  pro  tern.  (Mr.  Harris,  of  Virginia) :  The  order  of  busi- 
ness for  the  present  session  of  the  committee  is  the  delivery  of  argu- 
ments by  delegates  to  the  Woman  Suffrage  Convention  now  holding  its 
sessions  in  Washington.  I  am  informed  that  the  delegates  are  in  at- 
tendance upon  the  committee.    We  will  be  pleased  to  he  tr  them. 

A  list  of  the  names  of  the  ladies  proposing  to  speak,  with  a  memoran- 
dum of  the  limit  of  time  allotted  to  each,  has  been  handed  to  me  for  my 
guidance:  and,  in  the  absence  of  the  chairman,  (Mr.  Knott),  it  will  be 
my  duty  to  confine  the  speakers  to  the  number  of  minutes  apportioned 
to  them  respectively  upon  the  paper  before  me.  xVs  an  additional  con- 
sideration for  adhering  to  the  regulation  as  to  time,  I  will  mention  that 
members  of  the  committee  have  informed  me  that,  having  made  engage- 
ments to  be  at  the  departments  and  elsewhere  ou  business  appointments 
during  the  day,  they  will  be  compelled  to  leave  the  committee-room  upon 
the  expiration  of  the  time  assigned  for  the  present  order  of  business. 

The  first  name  upon  the  list  is  that  of  Mrs.  Emma  Mont.  McKae,  of 
Indiana,  to  whom  five  minutes  are  allowed. 

REMARKS  OF  MRS.  EMMA  MONT.  MCRAE,  OF  INDIANA. 

Mrs.  McKae  (who  was  introduced  by  Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony,  as  the 
principal  of  the  high  school  at  Muncie,  Iud.)  occupied  five  minutes. 
She  said : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  Judiciary  Committee:  The  women 
in  the  State  of  Indiana  who  want  to  vote  doubtless  number  many  more 
than  you  imagine  upon  hearing  the  name  of  the  Hoosier  State.  In 
Indiana  the  cause  of  woman  has  made  marked  advancement,  and  there 
women  have  advantages  over  their  sex  in  other  States.  At  the  same 
time  we  realize — and  as  mothers  especially  we  realize  it — that  we  need 
the  li^ut  to  vote,  in  order  that  we  may  have  protection.  We  need  that 
right  as  one  indispensably  necessary  to  our  security  in  the  enjoyment 
of  other  rights.  We  need  the  ballot  because  through  the  medium  of  its 
power  alone  we  can  hope  to  wield  that  influence,  in  the  making  of  laws 
affecting  our  own  and  our  children's  interests,  to  which  we  claim  to  be 
entitled.  Therefore,  I  have  come  from  the  State  of  Indiana  to  give  ut- 
terance to  the  voice  of  the  mothers  among  the  women  of  that  State,  in 
behalf  of  their  petition  for  the  right  to  vote. 

Some  receut  occurrences  in  Indiana,  one  in  particular  in  the  section 
of  the  State  from  which  I  come,  have  impressed  us  more  sensibly  than 
we  were  ever  before  impressed  with  the  necessity  to  us  of  the  exercise 
of  this  right.  We  want  to  vote  that  we  may  be  permitted  to  earn  our 
bread.    The  particular  incident  to  which  I  refer  was  this:  In  the  town 


12*25 

2  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 

of  Muncie,  Indiana,  from  which  I  coine,  a  young  girl,  of  some  twenty- 
one  years,  who  for  the  past  five  years  bad  been  employed  as  a  clerk  in 
the  post-office,  and  upon  whom  a  widowed  mother  was  dependent  for 
support,  was  told,  on  the  first  of  January,  that  she  was  no  longer  needed 
in  the  office.  She  had  filled  her  place  well ;  no  complaint  had  been 
made  against  her,  and  it  was  not  intimated  that  her  place  was  a  super- 
numerary one.  She  very  modestly  asked  the  postmaster  as  to  the 
cause  of  her  discharge,  aud  he  replied  :  "We  have  a  man  who  has  done 
work  for  the  party,  and  we  must  give  that  man  a  place  ;  I  haven't  room 
for  both  of  you.  I  must  take  your  place  away  from  you  and  give  it  to 
that  man."  Now,  there  you  have  at  once  the  reason  why  we  want  the 
ballot  ;  we  want  to  be  able  to  do  something  for  the  party  in  a  substan- 
tial way,  so  that  men  may  not  have  this  to  tell  us,  that  they  have  no 
room  for  us  because  we  do  nothing  "  for  thepartyP  I  want  this  young 
girl,  and  all  the  young  girls,  and  all  the  mothers  in  Indiana,  to  be  able 
to  do  something  for  44  the  party"  in  Indiana,  by  means  of  which  they  can 
show  they  have  the  power  to  protect  themselves  in  earning  livelihoods. 
When  they  have  the  ballot,  women  will  work  for  "  the  party,"  as  a 
means  of  enabling  them  to  hold  places  in  which  they  may  get  bread  for 
their  mothers  and  for  their  children,  if  necessity  requires  this  of  them. 
[Here  the  five  minutes  expired.] 


REMARKS  OF  MISS  JESSIE  T.  WAITE,  OF  ILLINOIS, 


Miss  Waite  was  awarded  the  next  five  minutes.    She  said  . 

Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  :  I  feel  called  upon  to  say  that,  previous  to  this  time,  the 
women  of  Illinois  have  not  been  ready  for  the  ballot,  but  that  now  they 
are.  In  that  State  we  have  attained  to  almost  every  right  except  that  of 
the  ballot.  WTe  have  been  admitted  to  all  the  schools  and  colleges;  we 
have  become  accustomed  to  parliamentary  usages;  we  have  become  accus- 
tomed to  voting  in  literary  societies  and  in  all  matters  connected  with 
the  interests  of  the  colleges  and  schools;  we  are  considered  members  in 
good  standing  of  the  associations,  and,  in  some  cases,  the  young  ladies  in 
the  institutes  have  been  told  that  they  hold  the  balance  of  power. 

The  same  reason  for  woman  suffrage  that  has  been  given  by  the  dele- 
gate from  Indiana  (Mrs.  McRae)  holds  good  with  reference  to  the  State 
of  Illinois,  that  women  must  have  the  ballot  in  order  that  they  may 
have  the  means  of  self  support  and  protection  in  getting  bread  for 
themselves  and  their  families  by  giving  to  the  party  that  looks  for  their 
support  some  substantial  evidence  of  their  strength.  There  are  evidences 
of  an  uprising  among  the  women  of  our  State,  aud  of  the  development 
among  them  of  this  feeling  that  they  must  have  the  ballot.  Experi- 
ence has  demonstrated,  especially  iu  the  temperance  movement,  how 
fruitless  are  all  their  efforts  while  the  ballot  is  withheld  from  their 
hands.  They  have  prayed ;  they  have  petitioned;  they  have  talked; 
they  have  lectured ;  they  have  done  all  that  they  could  do,  except  to 
vote;  and  yet  all  availeth  them  nothing.  Miss  Frances  Willard  and 
other  ladies  presented  to  the  legislature  of  Illinois  a  petition  of  such 
length  that  it  would  have  reached  around  this  room.  It  contained  over 
50,000  signatures. 

Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony  (aside).  One  hundred  and  eighty  thousand. 

Miss  Waite  (continuing.)  I  am  obliged  for  the  correction.  One  hun 
died  and  eighty  thousand.    1  was  not  aware  that  it  contained  so  many 
names,  though  I  did  learn  that  the  number  of  signatures  was  largely 
increased  over  50,000.    The  purpose  of  the  petition  was  to  have  the 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


3 


legislature  give  the  women  of  the  State  the  right  to  vote  upon  the 
question  of  license  or  no  license,  in  their  respective  districts. 

I  have  found,  siuce  coming  to  the  East,  that  the  women  of  the  West 
have  reason  to  congratulate  themselves  upon* their  comparatively  ad- 
vanced position.  They  may,  indeed,  flatter  themselves  upon  the  truth 
of  the  remark  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  of  California,  as  applied  to  the  con- 
dition of  women  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  when  he  said  that  "  Westward 
the  star  of  empire  takes  its  way."  This  is  manifest  in  all  our  schools, 
and  in  all  the  avenues  of  employment  which  have  been  opened  to  women 
in  that  State,  within  the  past  live  or  ten  years.  There  remains,  there- 
fore, only  this  one  great  deprivation,  the  denial  of  the  suffrage;  as,  ex- 
cept upon  school  district  matters  (in  which  particular  the  right  has 
also  been  extended  to  women  in  some  of  the  Eastern  States),  we  have 
not  been  allowed  to  vote.  In  some  of  the  counties  of  our  State  we 
have  ladies  as  superintendents  of  schools,  and  one  or  two  who  are  pro- 
fessors in  colleges.  One  of  the  professors  in  the  Industrial  University 
at  Champaign  is  a  lady.  Throughout  the  State  you  may  find  ladies 
who  excel  in  every  branch  of  study  and  in  every  trade.  It  was  a  lady 
who  took  the  prize  at  ''the  Exposition"  for  the  most  beautiful  piece  of 
cabinet-work.  This  is  said  to  have-been  a  marvel  of  beauty,  and  ex- 
traordinary as  a  specimen  of  fine  art.  She  was  a  foreigner;  a  Scandi- 
navian, I  believe.  Auother  lady  is  a  teacher  of  wood-carving,  a  branch 
of  industry  which  is  becoming  quite  an  art.  There  are  lady  physicians. 
There  are  two  lady  attorneys,  Perry  and  Martin,  now  practicing  in  the 
city  of  Chicago.  Representatives  of  our  sex  are  also  to  be  found  among 
real  estate  agents  and  journalists;  while,  in  one  or  two  instances,  as 
1  trenchers,  they  have  been  recognized  and  authorized  to  sa}~  what  they 
lei t  called  upon  to  say  in  the  churches. 

[Here  the  five  minutes  expired.] 

REMARKS  OF  MRS.  CATHERINE  A.  STEBBINS,  OF  MICHIGAN. 

Mrs.  Stebjbins  was  given  the  next  five  minutes.    She  said: 

"  Better  fifty  years  of  Europe  than  a  cycle  of  Cathay  \v  So  said  the 
poet ;  and  I  say,  Better  a  week  with  these  inspired  women  in  conference 
than  years  of  an  indifferent  conventional  society  !  Their  presence  has 
been  a  blessing  to  the  people  of  this  District,  and  will  prove  in  the 
future  a  blessing  to  our  government.  These  women,  from  all  sectious 
of  our  country,  with  a  moral  and  spiritual  enthusiasm  (enthusiasm,  God 
in  us)  which  seeks  to  lift  off  the  moral  burdens  of  our  government  and 
social  life,  come  to  you,  telling  of  the  obstacles  and  barriers  that  have 
beset  their  path  and  baffled  them  in  their  strivings.  They  have  tried 
to  heal  the  hurts  of  the  stricken  in  vice,  ignorance,  and  despair;  to 
save  our  land  from  self-destruction  and  disintegration.  One  has  sought 
to  reform  the  drunkard,  to  save  the  moderate  drinker,  to  convert  the 
liquor-seller;  another,  to  shelter  the  homeless;  another,  to  lift  and  save 
the  abandoned  woman.  ''Abandoned  V-  once  asked  a  prophet -like  man 
of  our  time,  who  added,  "There  never  was  an  abandoned  woman  with- 
out an  abandoned  man  !"  Abandoned  of  whom  I  let  us  ask.  Surely  not 
by  the  merciful  Father.  No;  neither  man  nor  woman  is  ever  aban- 
doned by  Him,  and  He  sends  His  instruments,  in  the  persons  of  some  of 
these  great-hearted  women,  to  appeal  to  you  to  restore  their  God-given 
freedom  of  action,  that  ''the  least  of  these  r  may  be  remembered. 

Bnt  in  our  councils  no  one  has  dwelt  upon  one  of  the  great  evils  of  our 
civilization,  the  scourge  of  war;  though  it  has  been  said  that  women 


4 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


will  fight.  It  is  true,  there  are  instances  in  which  they  have  considered 
it  a  duty  ;  there  were  such  in  the  rebellion.  But  the  majority  of  women 
would  not  declare  war,  would  not  enlist  soldiers,  and  would  not  vote 
supplies  and  equipments,  because  many  of  the  most  thoughtful  believe 
there  is  a  better  way,  and  that  women  can  bring  a  moral  power  to  bear 
that  shall  make  war  needless. 
Jeaunette,  in  the  old  song,  appeals  to  her  lover,  Jennot : 

"If  kings  will  show  their  might, 
Why,  let  those  who  make  the  quarrels 
Be  the  ouly  men  to  light." 

Like  my  father  and  mother,  I  was  reared  in  the  society  of  u  Friends," 
and  we  loved  the  principles  of  peace,  of  non  resistance  of  injuries. 
The  rebellion  came;  a  brother  iu  New  York  City  enlisted  in  the  Army 
in  April,  ?61.  We  had  come  to  think,  because  we  hoped,  that  men  iu 
our  country  had  outgrown  the  spirit  of  war  on  the  battle-held,  although 
we  perceived  that  if  men  would  not  repent  and  make  clean  our  govern- 
ment, it  might  prove  inevitable.  Brother  wrote  us  that  he  had  enlisted 
and  must  go.  We  were  overwhelmed  with  grief  at  the  thought,  but  the 
act  was  done;  we  could  ouly  submit.  I  well  remember  what  I  wrote 
him;  painful  as  it  was,  I  must  once  write  it.  The  thought,  1  told  him, 
that  he  was  to  deliberately  stand  in  the  ranks  to  be  aimed  at  and  shot 
down  was  a  terrible  one  and  a  great  fear  to  us;  but  the  other  thought, 
that  he  was  as  deliberately  to  stand  up  and  aim  his  weapon  at  another 
man,  and  perhaps  take  his  life,  was  a  far  more  terrible  thought;  aud  let 
me  say  here,  that  if  men  could  see  and  know  the  lives  they  take,  they 
would  shrink,  in  many  cases  utterly  shrink,  from  war.  They  do  not  see 
the  individual  men.  Modern  warfare  is  very  different  from  the  old.  Men 
seldom  fight  hand  to  hand,  and  the  smoke  of  battle  hides  their  deeds 
from  sight.  The  soldiers  tell  us — whole  regiments,  1  think — that  they 
never  saw  a  man  fall  who  was  hit  by  their  individual  bullets.  O,  what 
a  solace  to  their  sensitive  hearts! — not  to  their  consciences,  for  they  start 
out  to  serve  their  country.  The  humau  heart  of  man,  under  the  best 
conditions  and  under  the  tender  guidance  of  a  conscientious  mother, 
revolts  at  such  deeds. 

In  passing,  let  me  speak  of  a  reply  this  brother  made  to  our  blessed 
mother  after  she  had  warned  him  against  the  temptations  of  the  great 
city.  He  wrote,  " Never  fear  for  me,  dear  mother,  iu  regard  to  these 
temptations;  I  have  not  the  least  inclination  to  the  vices  of  the  low, 
for  I  have  had  too  good  a  start  at  home."  O,  comforting,  enduring 
words!  They  live  in  memory  of  a  mother's  faithfulness  and  a  son  s 
truth.  And  here  we  see  the  close  connection  with  deeper  questions  of 
the  mother's  influence,  which  we  have  no  time  to  discuss  to-day. 

But  let  us  take  one  picture,  representative  of  the  general  features 
of  war — we  say  nothing  of  our  convictions  in  regard  to  the  conflict. 
Ulysses  S.  Grant  or  Anna  Ella  Carroll  make  plans  and  maps  for  the 
campaign  ;  McClellan  and  Meade  are  commanded  to  collect  the  colum- 
biads,  muskets  and  ammunition,  and  move  their  men  to  the  attack. 
At  the  same  time  the  saintly  Clara  Barton  collects  her  cordials,  medi- 
cines, and  delicacies,  her  lint  and  bandages  and,  putting  them  in  tin* 
ambulance  assigned,  joins  the  same  moving  train.  McClellan's  men 
meet  the  enemy  and  men — brothers — on  both  sides,  fall  by  the  death- 
dealing  missiles.  Miss  Barton  and  her  aids  bear  off  the  sufferers, 
staunch  their  bleeding  wounds,  soothe  the  reeling  brain,  bandage  the 
crippled  Limbs,  pour  in  the  oil  and  wine,  and  make  as  easy  as  may  be 
the  soldier's  bed.  What  a,  solemn  and  heart  rending  farce  is  here  en- 
acted !    Aud  t\et  in  our  present  development,  men  and  women  seek  to 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


5 


reconcile  it  with  the  requirements  of  religion  and  the  necessities  of  our 
conflicting  lives.    So  few  recognize  the  absolute  truth  ! 

But  mothers  know  the  cost  of  a  life.  One  of  the  sweetest  and  most 
self-sacrificing  women  who  ever  did  works  of  mercy  in  this  District  and 
one  of  the  most  serious  whoever  appeared  before  your  committee,  in 
conversation  with  me  about  the  faith,  love,  and  suffering  of  women,  said, 
"In  maternity  every  mother  goes  down  into  the  garden  of  Gethsemano 
and  leans  her  heart  on  the  heart  of  God."  Another  has  said,  '-Every 
mother  is  a  Madonna  by  the  cradle  of  her  first  born.1"  Will  you  help  us 
to  save  our  first  born  ! 

[Here  the  time  expired.] 

REMARKS  OF  MRS.  ELIZABETH  L.  SAXOX,  OF  LOUISIANA. 

Airs.  Saxon  (to  whom  was  allotted  five  minutes)  said  : 

Getttlmieii  of  the  Committee  :  I  feel  that  I  would  much  prefer  leaving 
my  time  to  Miss  Anthony  but  having  been  called  upon  as  one  of  three 
members  here  present  from  the  south — coming,  as  I  do,  from  the  State 
of  Louisiana — it  may  be  incumbent  upon  me  to  state  why  I  am  here. 

It  is  said  that  the  emancipation  proclamation  was  a  military  neces- 
sity ;  that  the  political  privilege  to  the  negro  was  a  political  necessity. 
I  entered  upon  the  enfranchisement  of  women  as  a  moral  necessity. 
We  who  are  mothers  have  gathered  here  from  all  quarters  of  the  land, 
because  we  want  to  be  able  to  help  our  children — helping,  through  our 
children,  all  mankind. 

In  the  course  of  conversation  with  one  or  two  of  the  gentlemen  here, 
1  made  to  them  the  statement  that  our  people  are  not  as  unfavorable  to 
this  movement  as  they  think,  and  I  will,  as  briefly  as  possible,  give  the 
authority  for  my  statement.  In  July  last,  during  the  session  of  the  con- 
stitutional convention  of  Louisiana,  I  presented  to  that  body  a  petition 
on  this  subject  signed  by  the  very  best  men  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans 
and  elsewhere.  We  had  the  names  of  five  clergymen  and  seven  of  the 
most  prominent  physicians  of  the  State.  Dr.  Richardson,  a  leading 
physician,  said  to  his  wife  afterwards,  UI  reproach  you  for  not  standing 
by  these  ladies  in  their  effort  for  the  emancipation  of  women.'7  Gov- 
ernor WiltZj  who  occupied  the  chair  of  the  convention  (being  at  that 
time  lieutenant  governor),  heartily  approved  our  petition.  We  also  pre- 
sented a  supplementary  petition,  which,  with  the  first,  was  referred  to 
the  judiciary  committee.  We  were  formally  invited  by  Mr.  Poche,  a 
prominent  Creole  from  one  of  the  upper  parishes  and  a  member  of  the 
committee  on  the  elective  franchise,  to  appear  before  the  judiciary 
committee,  which  was  then  meeting  in  the  St.  Charles  Hotel.  They 
set  apart  an  evening  for  our  accommodation  and  permitted  the  at- 
tendance of  any  other  ladies  who  desired  to  attend.  The  ladies,  not 
being  accustomed  to  appear  before  public  bodies,  being  timid  and 
reserved,  as  all  Southern  ladies  are,  declined  to  take  part  witli  me 
in  the  presentation  of  the  subject.  However,  I  went  before  the  judici- 
ary committee  attended  by  Col.  John  D.  Sandige,  and  made  my  argu- 
ment beiore  them.  That  committee,  having  upon  it  some  Republican 
members  but  composed  largely  of  Democrats,  heard  me  so  favorably 
that  they  reported  affirmatively  an  ordinance  on  the  subject  to  the  con- 
vention. Subsequently,  I  appeared  before  the  convention  in  company 
with  other  ladies,  among  whom  were  Mrs.  Merrick,  the  wife  of  the  chief 
justice  of  the  State;  and  Mrs.  Dr.  Keating  (niece  of  Mrs.  Dr.  Clemence 
Lozier,  of  New  York,)  a  lady  who  had  some  of  the  first  families  of  the 
State  under  her  care  as  a  physician,  and  who,  though  her  pecuniary  in. 


6 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


terests  were  in  a  way  to  be  sacrificed,  was  governed  solely  by  her  sense 
of  right,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  go  with  me  before  the  convention  and 
make  her  plea  for  woman — which  I  do  not  think  many  men  would  have 
done.  Mrs.  Dorsey,  who  left  to  Jefferson  Davis  her  fortune,  and  who 
was  then  on  her  death-bed — than  whom  no  woman  ever  ranked  higher 
socially,  intellectually,  or  in  any  way — was  among  the  signers  to  the 
petition  which  we  presented.  She  wrote  a  letter  on  this  subject,  which 
was  read  to  the  convention  by  Colonel  Saudige,  and  the  occasion  of  that 
formal  letter  was  the  last  upon  which  she  ever  handled  a  pen.  In  our 
appeal  to  that  convention  we  plead  as  mothers,  and  our  plea  was,  "We 
do  not  want  men's  places;  we  only  want  you,  gentlemen,  to  help  us  in 
school  reforms,  in  prison  reforms,  aud  social  reforms." 

I  would  mention,  in  this  connection,  the  very  pertinent  retort  made 
by  the  delegate  now  here  from  Delaware,  from  whom  I  learned  of  it  last 
evening.  Upon  being  told  by  a  gentleman  promiuent  in  public  life  that 
he  favored  woman  suffrage,  but  that  men  were  opposed  to  women  going 
to  the  polls,  she  replied,  that  when  there  was  a  foul  place  about  a  house, 
a  cess-pool,  or  anything  of  the  kind,  it  was  the  women  who  went  to  work 
to  carbolize  and  scour  it  up  and,  as  they  did  this  in  private  life,  they 
w7ould  prove  equally  efficient  in  scouring  up  the  foul  places  iu  public  life. 

Yesterday,  before  the  Senate  Judiciary  Committee,  I  heard  Miss  An- 
thony make  an  argument  that,  to  my  mind,  was  indisputable.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  every  one  who  heard  it  will  agree  with  me  in  that.  Those 
who  now  come  before  you,  gentlemen,  are  pleading  with  you  to  help  us 
women  to  do  that  which  is  emphatically  our  own  work.  They  want 
nothing  more.  The  character  of  the  ladies  who  worked  with  me  in  this 
cause  iu  Louisiana  was  a  sufficient  guarantee  to  those  who  appended 
their  names  to  our  petition  that  it  was  not  the  riff-raff  of  society  who 
were  asking  for  recognition  but  the  mothers  of  a  community;  and  let 
me  tell  you,  gentlemen,  that  whenever  the  moral  forces  of  a  nation  are 
to  be  aroused,  as  those  of  our  nation  are  fast  becoming  aroused,  the 
most  effective  agents  that  can  be  employed  in  the  work  are  the  mothers. 
We  want  to  go  into  the  institutions  of  learning,  and  make  reforms  there. 
We  want  to  go  into  prisons,  and  make  prison  reforms.  Wherever  woman 
sins  and  suffers,  there  let  woman  go.  The  ranks  of  iniquity,  gentlemen, 
are  not  recruited  from  a  foreign  race,  but  from  the  babes  born  of  our 
bodies  and  nursed  in  our  arms,  and  every  woman  who  has  gone  down 
to  ruin  has  gone  down  with  a  broken-hearted  mother  behind  her.  I 
plead  for  those,  gentlemen  

[Here  the  live  minutes  expired.] 

REMARKS  OF  MRS.  LILLIE  DEVERETJX  BLAKE,  OF  NEW  YORK. 

Mrs.  Blake  (to  whom  ten  minutes  had  been  assigned)  came  forward, 
bearing  a  volume  of  the  Kevised  Statutes,  and  said  : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee :  1  come  here  with  your 
own  laws  in  my  hands,  and  the  volume  is  quite  a  heavy  one  too,  to  ask 
you  something  about  our  position  to  day.  1  ask  you  whether  we.  women, 
arc1  citizens  of  this  nation  ? 

The  Chairman  (Mr.  Harris,  of  Virginia,  in  the  chair).  1  have  only  to 
say  to  yon,  madam,  in  reply,  that  the  committee  are  here  to  listen,  not 
to  advise 

Mrs.  BLAKE.  Then  T  will  proceed  to  instruct  you,  if  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  instruct  so  august  a  body  as  this. 

I  have  here  the  book  of  laws  which  you,  men,  have  made.  I  find  in 
this  book,  under  the  heading  of  the  chapter  on  ''Citizenship,"  the  fol- 
lowing : 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


7 


"Sec.  191)2.  All  persons  born  in  tlie  United  States  and  not  subject  to 
any  foreign  power,  excluding  Indians  not  taxed,  are  declared  to  be  citi- 
zens of  the  United  Stares/' 

I  suppose  that  you,  gentlemen,  will  admit  that  we,  women,  are,  in 
the  language  of  the  section,  "persons,"  and  that  we  cannot  reasonably 
be  included  in  the  class  spoken  of  as  "Indians  not  taxed."  Therefore 
I  claim  that  we  are  "citizens." 

The  same  chapter  also  contains  the  following: 

"Sec.  1994.  Any  woman  who  is  now  or  may  hereafter  be  married  to 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States  anil  who  might  herself  be  lawfully  natur- 
alized shall  be  deemed  a  citizen." 

Under  this  section  also  we  are  citizens.  I  am  myself,  as  indeed  are 
most  of  the  ladies  present,  married  to  a  citizen  of  the  United  States; 
so  that  we  are  citizens  under  this  count  if  we  \\ere  not  citizens  before. 

Then,  further,  in  the  legislation  known  as  "The  Civil  Rights  Bill,"  I 
find  this  language: 

"All  persons  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  shall  have 
the  same  right,  in  every  State  and  Territory,  to  make  and  enforce  con- 
tracts, to  sue,  be  parties,  give  evidence,  and  to  the  lull  and  equal  benefit 
of  all  laws  and  proceedings  for  the  security  of  persons  and  property  as 
is  enjoyed  by  white  citizens,  and  shall  be  subject  to  like  punishments, 
pains,  penalties,"  and  so  forth. 

One  would  think  that  the  logical  conclusion  from  that  which  I  have 
last  read  would  be  that  all  citizens  are  entitled  to  equal  protection  every- 
.  where.    It  appears  to  mean  that. 

Then  I  turn  to  another  piece  of  legislation — that  which  is  known  as 
"  The  Enforcement  Act" — one  which  some  of  you,  gentlemen,  did  not 
like  very  much  when  it  was  enacted — and  there  I  find  another  declara- 
tion on  the  same  question.  The  act  is  entitled  "An  act  to  enforce  the 
right  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  vote  in  the  several  States  of 
this  Union  and  for  other  purposes."  The  right  of  "  citizens77  to  vote  ap- 
pears to  be  conceded  by  this  act.    In  the  2d  section,  the  act  says  : 

"  It  shall  be*  the  duty  of  every  such  person  and  officer  to  give  to  all 
citizens  of  the  United  States  the  same  and  equal  opportunity  to  perform 
such  prerequisite,  and  to  become  qualified  to  vote,  without  distinction 
of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude." 

I  ask  you,  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  as  lawyers,  whether  you  do 
not  think  that,  after  we  have  been  declared  to  be  citizens,  we  have  the 
right  to  claim  the  protection  of  this  enforcement  act  %  Is  it  not  clear  to 
you  that  the  gentlemen  have  made  the  most  singular  muddle — I  don't 
.  wish  to  seem  disrespectful — but  is  it  not  the  fact,  that  they  have  made 
the  most  singular  muddle  in  the  present  condition  of  woman  in  this 
country  ?  We  are  practically  remanded  to  a  sort  of  intermediate  con- 
dition, although  we  have  been  declared  to  be  citizens  by  the  laws  of  the 
United  States.  When  you,  gentlemen  from  the  North,  rise  in  your 
places  here  in  the  halls  of  Congress  and  make  these  walls  ring  with  your 
eloquence,  you  are  prone  to  talk  a  great  deal  about  the  right  of  every 
United  States  citizen  to  the  ballot,  and  the  necessity  of  protecting  every 
Such  citizen  in  its  exercise.    Whatdo  you  mean  by  it  \ 

It  occurs  to  me  here  to  call  your  attention  to  a  matter  of  recent  oc- 
currence. As  you  know,  there  has  been  a  little  unpleasantness  in 
Maine — a  State  which  is  not  without  a  representative  among  tin4  mem- 
bers of  the  Judiciary  Committee — and  certain  gentlemen  there,  es- 
pecially Mr.  Blaine,  have  been  greatly  exercised  in  their  minds  because, 
as  they  allege,  the  people  of  Maine  have  not  been  permitted  to  express 
their  will  at  the  polls.    Why,  gentlemen,  I  assert  that  a  msvj  >ri  y  of  the 


8 


WOMAN  SUFFRA.Gr. 


people  of  Maine  have  never  been  permitted  to  express  their  will  at  the 
polls.  A  majority  of  the  people  of  Maine  are  women,  aud,  from  the 
foundation  of  this  government  to  this  day,  have  never  been  permitted 
to  exercise  any  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  citizens.  Mr.  Blaine  made  a 
speech  a  day  or  two  ago  in  Augusta.  He  began  by  reciting  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs,  owing  to  the  effort,  as  he  states,  "  to  substitute  a  false 
count  for  an  honest  ballot,"  and  congratulated  his  audieuce  upon  the  in- 
strumentalities by  which  they  had  triumphed — "  without  tiring  a  gun, 
without  shedding  a  drop  of  blood,  without  striking  a  single  blow,  with- 
out one  disorderly  assemblage.  The  people  have  regained  their  own 
right  through  the  might  and  majesty  of  their  own  laws."  He  goes  on  in 
this  vein  to  speak  of  those  whom  he  calls  u  the  people  of  Maine."  Well, 
gentlemen,  I  do  not  think  you  will  deny  that  women  are  people.  It  ap- 
pears to  me  that  what  Mr.  Blaine  said  in  that  connection  was  nonsense, 
unless  indeed  he  forgot  that  there  were  any  others  than  men  among  the 
people  of  the  State  of  Maine.  I  don't  suppose  that  you,  gentlemen,  are 
often  so  forgetful.  Mr.  Blaine  said  further,  "  The  Eepublicans  of  Maine 
and  throughout  the  land  felt  that  they  were  not  merely  fighting  the  bat- 
tle of  a  single  year,  but  for  all  the  future  of  the  State  ;  not  merely 
fighting  the  battle  of  our  own  State  alone,  but  for  all  the  States  that 
are  attempting  the  great  problem  of  State  government  throughout  the 
world.  The  corruption  or  destruction  of  the  ballot  is  a  crime  against 
free  government,  and  when  successful  is  a  subversion  of  free  govern- 
ment." Does  that  mean  the  ballot  for  men  only  or  the  ballot  for  the 
people,  men  and  women  too  ?  If  it  is  to  be  received  as  meaning  any- 
thing, it  ought  to  mean  not  for  one  sex  alone,  but  for  both. 

Mr.  Lincoln  declared,  in  one  of  his  noblest  utterances,  that  no  man  was 
good  enough  to  govern  another  man  without  that  man's  consent.  Of 
course  be  meant  it  in  its  broadest  terms  ;  he  meant  that  no  man  or  wo- 
man was  good  enough  to  govern  ^another  man  or  woman  without  that 
other  man's  or  woman's  consent. 

I  need  not  recall  to  you,  gentlemen,  the  old  fundamental  principles  of 
this  republic,  that  "  taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny,"  44  that 
governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed." 
You  learned  those  lessons  when  boys  at  school  ;  and  remember,  gentle- 
men, we  learned  them  when  little  girls  at  school  also.  We  love  our  lib- 
erties just  as  dearly  as  you  love  yours,  aud  w7e  do  not  like  to  be  disfran- 
chized any  more  than  you  would  like  it.  What  gentleman  here  would 
consent  to  give  up  his  right'  to  vote — I  will  not  say  his  right  to  hold 
office — and  yet  you  expect  us,  women,  some  of  us  as  old  as  yourselves, 
aud  some  of  us  your  seniors,  to  be  content  with  our  disfranchised  con- 
dition. 

Mr.  Blaine,  on  another  occasion,  in  connection  with  the  same  subject- 
matter,  had  much  to  say  of  the  enormity  of  the  oppression  practiced  by 
his  political  opponents  in  depriving  the  town  of  Portland  of  the  right  of 
representation  in  view  of  its  paying  such  heavy  taxes  as  it  does  pay. 
He  expressed  the  greatest  indignation  at  the  attempt,  forgetting  utterly 
that  great,  that  enormous,  body  of  women  who  pay  taxes  and  who  are 
perpetually  deprived  of  the  right  of  representation. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  pertinent  for  me  to  express  the  hope,  by 
way  ol  a  suggestion  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  hereaiter,  when  making 
your  speeches,  you  will  not  use  the  term  "  citizens"  in  a  broad,  general 
sense  unless  you  mean  to  include  women  as  well  as  men,  and  that  when 
you  do  not  mean  to  include  women  you  will  speak  of  male  citizens  as 
a  distinct  and  separate  class,  because  the  term,  in  its  general  applica- 
tion, is  illogical  and  its  meaning  obscure  if  not  self-contradictory. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


9 


Mr.  Hayes,  our  Amiable  president,  was  so  pleased  with  one  of  the 
sentences  in  the  message  put  out  by  him  a  year  ago  that,  in  his  mes- 
sage of  this  year,  he  has  reiterated  the  same  sentence,  repeating  it  in 
precisely  identical  language.  The  sentence  reads  thus:  kk  That  no 
temporary  or  administrative  interests  of  government  will  ever  displace 
tike  zeal  of  our  people  in  defense  of  the  primary  rights  of  citizenship, 
and  that  the  power  of  public  opinion  will  override  all  political  prejudices 
and  all  sectional  and  State  attachments  in  demanding  that  all  over  our 
wide  territory  the  name  and  character  of  citizen  of  the  United  States 
shall  mean  one  and  the  same  thing,  and  cany  with  them  unchallenged 
security  and  respect."  Let  me  suggest  what  he  ought  to  have  said 
unless  he  intended  to  include  women,  although  I  am  afraid  that  Mr. 
Hayes,  when  he  wrote  this,  forgot  that  there  were  women  in  the  United 
States,  notwithstanding  that  his  excellent  wife,  perhaps,  stood  by  his 
side.  He  ought  to  have  said:  u  An  act  having  been  passed  to  enforce 
the  rights  of  male  citizens  to  vote,  the  true  vigor  of  half  the  population 
is  thus  expressed,  and  no  interests  of  government  will  ever  displace 
the  zeal  of  half  of  our  people  iu  defense  of  the  primary  rights  of  our 
male  citizens.  The  prosperity  of  the  States  depends  upon  the  protection  af- 
forded to  onr  male  citizens  ;  ami  the  name  and  character  of  male  cil  '/ens 
of  the  United  States  shall  mean  one  and  the  same  thing  and  carr\  with 
them  unchallenged  security  and  respect''  If  Mr.  Hayes  had  thus  ex- 
pressed himself,  he  would  have  made  a  perfectly  logical  and  clear  state- 
ment. Gentlemen,  I  hope  that  hereafter,  uhen  speaking  or  voting  in  be- 
half of  the  citizens  of  the  Uuited  States,  you  will  bear  this  in  mind  and 
will  remember  that  women  are  citizens  as  well  as  men,  and  that  they 
claim  the  same  rights. 

Gentlemen,  this  question  of  woman  suffrage  cannot  much  longer  be 
ignored  by  you.  In  the  State  from  which  I  come,  although  we  had  not 
last  fall  a  right  to  vote,  we  are  confident  that  the  influence  which  we, 
as  women,  brought  to  bear  iu  determining  the  result  of  the  election  at 
that  time  had  something  to  do  with  sending  into  retirement  a  Demo- 
cratic foven&r  who  was  opposed  to  our  reform,  and  electing  a  Repub- 
lican governor  who  was  iu  favor  of  it.  Kecollect,  gentlemen,  that  the 
expenditure  of  time  and  money  whi  *h  has  been  made  iu  this  cause  will 
not  be  without  its  effect.  The  time  is  coming  when  the  demand  of  an 
immense  number  of  the  women  of  this  country  cannot  be  ignored.  When 
you  see  these  representatives  comiug  up  here  from  all  the  States  of  the 
Union  to  ask  for  this  right,  can  you  doubt  that,  some  day,  they  will 
succeed  in  their  mission  ?  AVe  do  not  stand  before  you  to  plead  as  beg- 
gars; we  ask  for  that  for  which  we  do  ask  as  our  right.  We  ask  if  as 
due  to  the  memory  of  our  ancestors,  who  fought  for  the  freedom  of  this 
country  just  as  bravely  as  did  yours.  We  ask  it  on  many  considera- 
tions. Why,  gentlemen,  the  very  furniture  here,  the  carpet  on  this  floor, 
was  paid  for  with  our  money.  We  are  taxed  equally  with  the  men  to 
contribute  to  defray  the  expenses  of  this  Congress,  and  we  have  a  right 
equally  with  them  to  participate  in  the  government. 

In  closing,  I  have  only  to  ask,  Is  there  no  man  here  present  who  ap- 
preciates the  emergencies  of  this  hour  Is  there  no  one  among  you  who 
\\  ill  rise  up, on  thefloorof  Congress,  as  the  champion  of  this  unrepresented 
half  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  !  If  so,  the  time  is  not  far  dis- 
tant when  there  will  be.  The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  we  shall  have 
our  liberties,  and  the  politician  who  can  now  understand  the  political  im- 
portance of  our  eause,  the  statesman  who  can  now  see.  and  will  now  ap- 
preciate, the  justice  of  it,  that  man,  if  true  to  himself,  will  write  his 
name  high  on  the  scroll  of  fame  beside  those  of  the  men  who  have  been 


10 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


tbe  saviors  of  tbis  country.  Gentlemen,  I  entreat  you  not  to  let  this 
bearing  go  by  without  giving  due  weight  to  all  tbat  we  have  said.  I 
ask  yon  to  carry  it  in  your  hearts.  We  shall  be  successful  in  a  few  years. 
You  can  no  more  stay  the  onward  current  of  this  reform  than  you  can 
tight  against  the  stars  in  their  courses. 

Mr.  Willits,  of  Michigan.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  would  like  to  make  a 
suggestion  here.  The  regulation  amendment,  as  it  has  heretofore  been 
submitted,  provided  that  the  right  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  to 
vote  should  not  be  abridged  on  account  of  sex.  I  notice  that  the  amend- 
ment which  the  ladies  here  now  propose  has  preh'xeu  to  it  this  phrase : 
"  The  right  of  suffrage  in  the  United  States  shall  be  based  on  citizen- 
ship." I  call  attention  to  this,  because  I  would  like  to  have  them  ex- 
plain as  fully  as  they  may  why  they  incorporate  the  phrase,  "shall  be 
based  on  citizenship."  Is  the  meaning  this,  that  all  citizeus  shall  have 
the  right  to  vote,  or  simply  that  citizenship  shall  be  the  basis  of  suf- 
frage ?  The  words  "  or  for  any  reason  not  applicable  to  all  citizens  of 
the  United  States,"  also  seem  to  require  explanation.  The  proposition, 
in  the  form  in  which  it  is  now  submitted,  I  understand,  covers  a  little 
more  than  has  been  covered  by  the  amendment  submitted  in  previous 
years. 

Mrs.  Sara  A.  Spencer,  of  Washington,  D.  C.  If  the  committee  will 
permit  me,  1  will  say  that  the  amendment,  in  its  present  form,  is  the 
concentrated  wish  of  the  women  of  the  United  States.  The  women  of 
the  country  sent  to  Congress  petitions,  asking  for  three  different  forms 
of  constitutional  amendment  and,  when  preparing  the  form  of  amend- 
ment now  before  the  committee,  I  concentrated  these  three  forms  in  the 
one  before  you  (ideutical  with  that  of  the  resolution  offered  in  the  House 
by  Hon.  George  B.  Loring  and  by  Hon.  T.  W.  Ferry  in  the  Senate), 
omitting  at  the  request  of  each  of  the  three  classes  of  petitioners,  all 
phrases  which  were  regarded  by  any  of  them  as  objectionable.  The 
amendment,  as  now  presented,  is  therefore  the  combined  wish  of  the 
women  of  the  country,  viz,  that  citizenship  in  the  United  States  shall 
mean  suffrage,  and  that  no  one  shall  be  deprived  of  the  right  to  vote  for 
reasons  not  equally  applicable  to  all  citizeus. 

REMARKS  OF  MRS.  MATILDA  JOSLYN  GAGE,  OF  NEW  YORK. 

Mrs.  Gage,  the  next  speaker,  was  given  thirty  minutes. 
She  said : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  : 
It  is  upon  this  point  of  the  centralization  of  the  suffrage  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  United  States  that  I  propose  to  speak.  I  will  endeavor  to 
show  you  that,  in  the  progress  of  our  government,  from  its  very  incep- 
tion, liberty  has  been  defended  and  has  increased  as  certain  power  has 
been  centralized  in  the  hands  of  the  general  government,  and  taken 
away  from  the  States.  It  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  at  the  beginning 
of  their  rebellion  against  Great  Britain,  each  of  the  colonies  had  its  indi- 
vidual grievance,  and  that  at  an  early  day,  long  anterior  to  the  procla- 
mation of  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  it  was  deemed  best  for  the 
colonies  to  unite. 

Our  first  American  Congress,  which  met  in  1705,  was  fearful  that  the 
divers  injuries  under  which  the  colonies  suffered,  and  tin1  many  different 
charters  under  which  they  were  governed  might  ensnare  them — snc!i 
was  the  language  made  use  of  by  that  Congress — u  might  ensnare 
them"  into  working  in  opposite  directions.  Ill  this  the  Congress  rep- 
resented the  popular  sentiment,  which  found  expression  in  various  ways. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


LI 


In  the  same  year  in  which  that  body  first  convened,  The  Constitutional 
Courant,  a  paper  published  in  the  city  of  New  York',  came  out  with 
a  significant  representation  of  a  serpent  surrounded  by  thirteen  stars 
and,  encircling  the  whole,  an  inscription  reading  Join,  or  die  !''  This 
inscription  was  at  once  adopted  by  the  colonists  as  their  motto ;  the 
announcement  of  it  Hew  like  wildfire  over  the  whole  thirteen  colouies; 
the  people  began  to  be  united  in  sentiment,  and  to  realize  that  only  by 
banding  together  in  one  compact  whole  could  they  hope  to  make  their 
separate  forces  effective  against  the  tyranny  of  Great  Britain.  It  followed 
that,  prior  to  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  eleven  of  the  colonies,  and 
a  portion  of  one  of  the  two  remaining,  united  in  certain  articles  of  associ- 
ation. Indeed,  that  is  the  day  to  which  weought  to  look  back  as  that  of  the 
birth  of  our  nation,  instead  of  that  of  1776;  for  at  that  day,  although  form- 
ally adhering  to  their  allegiance  to  Great  Britain  and  to  His  Majesty 
George  III,  they  united  together  and  thenceforth  acted  as  one  body  in 
regard  to  non-importation,  non-exportation,  and  non-consumption,  and 
practically  became  one  people.  Some  nine  years  after  The  Constitutional 
Courant  had  put  forth  the  motto  of  join  or  die,  the  first  American  Con- 
gress gave  expression  to  the  popular  sentiment  in  declaring  its  appre- 
hension that  "the  diverse  interests"  of  the  American  colonies  would 
u  ensnare  them1'  to  keep  themselves  separate  from  each  other.  In  177<>, 
with  the  proclamation  of  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  our  country 
came  before  the  world  as  an  independent  nation  and  one  possessed  of 
all  the  rights  of  a  natiou. 

The  importance  of  the  necessity  of  a  greater  centralization  of  po- 
litical power  in  the  hands  of  the  general  government  became  mani- 
fest within  a  brief  period  after  that  proclamation  had  been  made, 
as  certain  States  asserted  the  right  of  an  individual  State  to  make 
peace,  declare  war,  and  contract  alliances.  Articles  of  confederation, 
having  for  their  object  the  consolidation  of  certain  powers  in  the  gen- 
eral government  with  a  view  to  promoting  the  security  and  ensuring 
the  liberty  ot#all  the  people,  were  entered  into  by  the  States.  In  1781% 
after  much  discussion,  originated  upon  a  proposition  in  Congress  to  levy 
certaiu  tariff  duties  and  imposts — the  State  of  Ehode  Island,  advocating 
what  is  now  known  as  "the  State  rights'  view,  and  protesting  against 
the  proposition  through  her  Representative,  the  Speaker  of  the  lower 
house,  Hon.  William  Bradford — it  was  recommended  by  Congress  that 
the  States  should  confer  greater  power  upon  the  general  government. 
This  recommendation  was  acquiesced  in  by  only  four  of  the  thirteen  col- 
onies. The  discussion,  however,  continued.  It  was  then  declared  that 
the  rights  for  which  this  nation  contended  were  the  rights  of  humanity. 
In  the  same  year  in  which  Rhode  Island  made  her  protest,  the  State  of 
New  York,  from  which  I  come,  formally  submitted  a  proposition  for  a 
general  convention  of  the  people  to  pass  upon  the  question.  This  tailed 
to  ensure  definite  action.  Finally,  in  1780,  the  house  of  delegates  or 
Virginia,  passed  a  resolution  inviting  the  assembling  of  commissioners 
from  the  various  States,  to  discuss  the  question  and  agree  upon  some 
means  for  conceding  greater  power  to  the  general  government.  In  Sep- 
tember of  the  same  year,  as  the  result  of  a  conference  of  commissioners 
Prom  the  States  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,. Delaware,  and 
Maryland  (three  of  which  were  then  slave  States),  a  call  was  issued  tor 
a  Constitutional  convention.  This  convention  assembled  in  Philadelphia 
and  finally  adopted  a  framework  of  government,  which  received  the 
approval  of  the  people.  Subsequent  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
some  ten  conciliatory  amendments  were  appended  to  it. 

I  have  thus  hastily  reviewed  the  more  prominent  features  of  our  early 


12 


WOMAN  kUFFPAGE. 


governmental  history  with  reference  to  the  steps  taken  from  time  to 
time  to  secure  the  liberty  of  the  citizens  by  centralizing  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  general  government. 

In  making  this  demand  for  the  ballot  as  secured  by  the  United  States, 
we  women  have  frequently  been  met  with  this  objection,  41  It  is  central- 
ization, and  centralization  tends  to  destroy  liberty."  I  acknowledge, 
gentlemen,  that  an  indiscriminate  centralization  of  power  does  tend  to 
destroy  liberty  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  wise  and  judicious  centrali- 
zation of  certain  powers  of  government  is  not  only  promotive  of,  but 
absolutely  essential  to,  the  maintenance  and  perpetuation  of  liberty. 
The  accumulation  of  the  powers  of  a  State  in  the  hands  of  the  legislature 
of  a  State,  by  which  that  body  is  given  the  exclusive  control  of  all  State 
affairs  even  down  to  the  building  of  a  bridge  or  the  location  of  a  village 
cemetery,  is  one  phase  of  that  centralization  which  is  dangerous  to  lib- 
erty. To  .such  an  extent  has  this  policy  been  carried  that  in  many  of 
the  States,  steps  have  been  taken  to  curtail  or  restrict  the  State  gov- 
ernment and  to  give  the  county  and  town  authorities  the  control  of  their 
own  local  affairs.  With  respect  to  all  such  matters,  we  women  believe 
in  a  diffusion  of  the  powers  of  government.  We  appreciate  the  fact 
that,  as  power  becomes  more  diffused  in  that  way,  in  connection  with 
these  minor  matters,  liberty  is  more  fully  established. 

In  regard  to  general  governmental  matters,  such  as  the  exercise  of  the 
suffrage  by  citizens  of  the  United  States,  we  know  that  in  the  steps  it 
has  taken  in  that  direction  the  general  government,  as  I  have  shown 
you,  has  promoted  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  and  better  secured  it  by 
the  exercise  of  its  protecting  power  over  the  ballot. 

Following  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  aud  the  ten  amendments  of 
which  I  have  spoken,  other  steps  were  taken  to  centralize  power  in  the 
general  government  because  of  the  necessity  which  seemed  to  be  felt 
at  the  time  for  the  enforcement  of  this  policy.  In  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  the  Xlth  amendment  to  the  Constitution  (per- 
taining to  the  judiciary)  was  adopted,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  Xllth  amendment  (regulating  the  election  of 
President  and  Vice-Presideut  by  electors),  in  regard  to  which.  I  believe 
a  bill  for  a  change  in  the  method  is  now  pending  befoie  the  House, 
was  adopted.  An  interval  of  some  years  elapsed  before  this  necessity 
for  a  more  complete  centralization  of  power  in  the  general  manage- 
ment again  manifested  itself.  It  did  present  itself  to  the  attention  of 
the  people  of  the  country  upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  of  the  Re- 
bellion,  when  the  Xlllth  amendment  was  adopted,  aud  afterwards  the 
XlVih  and  XVth  amendments,  all  of  them  seeming  to  be  in  the  interest 
of  liberty. 

Here  permit  me  to  digress  for  a  moment  in  order  to  notice  an  objec- 
tion that  we  have  sometimes  encountered,  and  one  that  was  urged  wben 
Mrs.  Minor's  case  came  before  the  SupremeCourtof  the  United  States.  It 
found  expression  in  the  declaration  of  Chief  Justice  Waite  when  he  de- 
clared that  the  United  States  had  no  voters.  I  assert  that  those  who 
exercise  the  suffrage  are  in  a  certain  sense  voters  of  the  United  States  as 
distinguished  from  the  voters  of  the  States.  I  claim,  and  shall  endea  vor 
to  show  you  in  the  course  of  my  remarks,  that  the  power  over  the  ballot 
which  has  been  relinquished  by  the  several  States  has  been  voluntarily 
relinquished  to  the  general  government,  in  the  course  of  time,  as  the 
States  have  become  consolidated  into  one  harmonious  whole.  The  XlVth 
amendment  declared  that  all  persons  born  and  naturalized  m  the  United 
States  or  in  the  several  States  are  citizens  of  the  State  in  which  they 
reside.    Then  the  XVth  amendment  was  passed  securing  to  all  men 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


13 


tbe  right  to  vote  without  regard  to  color.  The  purpose  and  effect  of 
those*  amendments  was  to  centralize  this  power,  so  far  as  regards  the 
colored  men,  in  the  hands  of  the  United  States.  En  other  words,  the 
general  government  made  those  colored  men  United  States  voters,  as 
those  amendments  completely  overrode  all  State  provisions.  The  States 
which  had  denied  to  colored  men  the  right  to  vote  could  not  longer  with- 
hold the  suffrage  from  them  after  those  amendments  went  into  effect. 
In  the  State  ci  New  York,  from  which  1  come,  for  instance,  prior  to  the 
ratification  of  those  amendments,  no  colored  man  was  allowed  to  vote 
unless  he  had  a  property  qualification  of  $250,  but  immediately  alter  the 
ratification  of  those  amendments  the  State  statute  on  that  subject  be- 
came a  dead  letter;  and,  although  it  remained  for  a  time  on  the  statute 
books  of  the  State,  these  colored  men  were  admitted  to  vote  irrespective 
of  the  property  qualification.  J  ask  therefore,  gentlemen,  were  they  not 
United  States  voters  I 

We  now  ask,  at  the  hands  of  Congress,  the  passage  of  the  With 
amendment.  We  ask  this  in  the  interest  of  liberty,  not  only  because 
we  seek  for  our  own,  but  because  we  would  have  you  preserve  your  lib- 
erty. We  base  our  demand  upon  the  broadest  considerations.  Accord- 
ing to  the  argument  of  our  opponents,  we  have  this  great  anomaly  in 
governmental  history,  that  the  underlying  principle  of  a  goverment 
which  was  founded,  as  was  our  own,  upon  the  basis  of  individual  rights, 
upon  the  right  of  every  person  to  self  government  (which  rights  in  this 
country  are  only  exercised  by  and  through  the  ballot),  that  this  funda- 
mental principle  has  been  left  for  100  years  in  the  hands  of  the  States 
individually,  and  should  continue  there.  I  answer  that  you  have  taken 
from  the  States  the  power  to  fix  State  boundaries,  to  coin  money,  to  estab- 
lish post-routes,  to  declare  peace  or  war,  to  collect  revenues,  to  regulate 
commerce,  and  such  like  powers;  and,  in  the  greater  interest  of  the  liber- 
ties of  the  people,  you  have  centralized  these  powers  in  the  United  States 
Government.  Under  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution,  it  is  only  the 
black  man  who  is  secure  in  his  right  to  vote  in  the  States.  White  men 
are  not  moM  secure  in  that  right  than  are  we  women  ;  audi  submit 
that  this  theory  of  government  which  admits  that  the  States  severally 
have  entire  jurisdiction  over  the  ballot  is  a  most  dangerous  one.  This 
power  is  shown  most  dangerously  in  those  States  which  have  prohibited 
women  from  holding  the  ballot  and  declared  that  males  only  should  ex- 
ercise it.  It  is  against  this  that  we  women  protest  when  we  declare  that 
the  ballot  should  be  based  only  on  citizenship.  We  desire  that  citizen- 
shit)  and  suffrage  in  the  United  States  should  be  practically  synonymous 
terms.  Under  such  an  interpretation  of  the  meaning  of  tin1  terms,  we 
would  be  willing  to  leave  the  regulation  of  the  suffrage  in  the  hands  of  the 
States.  I,  for  one,  would  not  take  from  the  States  any  power  which  be- 
longs to  them  ;  I  only  ask  that  what  shall  be  done  shall  be  done  exactly 
in  the  line  of  all  that  has  been,  done  since  the  beginning  of  our  govern- 
ment for  the  purpose  of  more  fully  securing  the  liberty  of  all  citizen-  oi 
the  United  States,  of  enabling  the  people  of  the  States  more  fully  to  pre- 
serve their  political  dignity,  while  permitting  them  to  regulate  the  suf- 
frage on  conditions  equally  applicable  to  all  persons.  This  is  what  is 
meant  by  the  language  of  the  form  of  amendment  here  submitted  :  [and 
in  asking  this,  I  repeat,  we  are  asking  for  the  security  of  your  liberty  as 
well  as  our  own. 

Furthermore,  under  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution,  the  condition 
of  male  citizens  is  this:  xVny  white  man  may  be  disfranchised  by  ;i  State 
law  but  no  colored  man  can  be  thus  disfranchised  ;  the  colored  man  is 
Secure  while  the  white  man  is  not  secure  in  the  exercise  of  tbe  suffrage; 


14 


WOMA.N  SUFFRAGE. 


and  the  security  of  tb e  colored  man  depends  not  upon  any  statutes  of 
the  States  but  solely  upon  the  assurance  afforded  by  the  United  States 
in  the  amendments  to  which  I  have  referred. 

Those  of  you,  gentlemen,  who  are  advocates  of  the  State  rights  doc- 
trine need  entertain  no  apprehension  that  we  contemplate  any  violation 
of  that  doctrine  in  the  position  we  have  assumed  here,  because  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  such  as  we  propose  cannot  be  ratified,  and 
therefore  cannot  be  made  affective,  without  the  consent  of  two-thirds  of 
the  States.  When  Miss  Anthony,  in  her  argument  before  the  Senate 
Judiciary  Committee  yesterday,  asked  the  chairman  (Senator  Thurman) 
whether  that  was  not  in  strict  accordance  with  the  States  rights  prin- 
ciple, that  gentleman  answered  that  it  was. 

As  1  was  saying,  the  States,  at  all  times  in  the  past,  when  they  have 
given  up  a  portion  of  their  liberties  in  the  interest  of  the  general  gov- 
ernment, have  given  them  up  in  the  interest  of  all  the  States,  and,  in  so 
doing,  have  secured  their  owu  liberty  more  fully.  We  know,  too,  that 
in  proportion  as  the  right  of  the  ballot  is  nationalized,  as  it  is  made 
broader,  as  it  is  made  more  secure  to  citizens  of  the  United  States,  the 
more  it  is  permanently  secured.  We  kuow,  too,  that  our  country  has 
reached  a  period  in  its  history  when  the  attention  of  the  people  of  the 
country  is  directed  most  earnestly  and  anxiously  to  what  shall  be 
the  condition  of  the  republic.  We  are  convinced  that  this  suffrage 
question  has  assumed  a  larger  and  wider  scope  and  is  of  more  profound 
interest  at  this  time  than  at  any  time  heretofore;  that  it  is  rapidly 
becoming  a  feature  of  the  national  policy;  and  that,  siuce  the  war,  the 
demand  for  woman  suffrage  has  extended  over  the  whole  country.  We 
desire  to  remind  you,  gentlemen,  tha$  by  passing  the  XVlth  amendment 
you  will  not  only  be  securing  to  yourselves  the  rights  of  individual  self 
government  and  making  yourselves  more  secure  in  the  exercise  of  those 
rights,  but  that  you  will  be  following  directly  in  the  line  which  our 
country  has  followed  from  the  meeting  of  the  first  American  Congress 
up  to  this  day.  With  these  remarks,  I  leave  this  portion  of  the  ques- 
tion with  you. 

[Here  the  time  expired.] 

REMARKS  OF  MISS  PIICKBE  W.  COUZINS,  OF  MISSOURI. 

Miss  Couzins  (to  whom  had  been  assigned  the  next  thirty  minutes) 
came  lor  ward  and  said  : 

Mr,  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Judiciary  Committee:  I  am  in- 
vited to  speak  of  the  dangers  which  beset  us  at  this  hour  in  the  recent 
decision  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Minor. 
Coming,  as  I  do,  from  the  State  of  Missouri,  it  has  been  deemed  best 
that  I  should  review  this  case  more  fully  before  you  than  has  been  done 
by  the  speakers  who  have  preceded  me. 

The  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  Mrs.  Mi- 
nor's case  not  only  stultifies  its  previous  interpretation  of  the  recent 
Constitutional  amendments  and  makes  them  a  dead  letter,  but  will  rank, 
in  the  coming  ages,  in  the  history  of  the  judiciary,  with  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  The  law,  as  explained  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  was  au  infamous 
one,  which  trampled  upon  the  most  solemn  rights  of  the  loyal  citizens  of 
the  government,  and  declared  the  Constitution  to  mean  anything  or 
nothing,  as  the  case  might  be.  Yet,  the  decisiou  in  that  case  had  a 
saving  clause,  for  it  was  not  the  unanimous  voice  of  a  Democratic  judi- 
ciary. Dissenting  opinions  were  nobly  uttered  from  the  bench.  In  the 
mor  e  recent  case,  under  the  rule  of  a  Republican  judiciary  (created  by  a 


♦ 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE.  15 

party  professing  to  be  one  of  justice  and  equal  rights,)  tbe  rights  of  one- 
half  of  the  people  were  deliberately  abrogated  without  a  dissenting  voice. 
This  violation  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  government  called 
forth  no  protest  from  the  bench  of  a  Republican  judiciary.  In  all  of  the 
decisions  against  woman  in  the  Republican  court,  there  has  not  been 
found  one  Lord  Mansfield  who,  rising  to  the  supreme  height  of  an  unbi- 
ased judgment,  would  give  the  immortal  decree  that  shall  crown  with  regal 
dignity  the  mother  of  the  race:  1  care  not  for  the  supposed  dictates  of 
judges,  however  eminent,  if  they  be  contrary  to  principle.  It  the  par- 
ties will  have  judgment,  let  justice  be  done,  though  the  Heavens  fall." 

The  Dred  Scott  decision  declared  as  the  law  of  citizenship,  "to  be  a 
citizen  is  to  have  actual  possession  and  enjoyment  or  the  perfect  right 
to  the  acquisition  and  an  enjoyment  of  an  entire  equality  of  privileges, 
civil  and  political."  But  the  slave  power  was  then  dominant  and  the 
court  decided  that  a  black  man  was  uot  a  citizen  because  he  had  not  the 
right  to  vote.  But  when  the  Constitution  was  so  amended  as  to  make 
"all  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States  citizens  there- 
of," a  negro,  by  virtue  of  his  United  States  citizenship,  was  declared, 
under  the  amendments,  a  voter  in  every  State  in  the  Union.  And  the 
Supreme  Court  reaffirmed  this  right  in  the  celebrated  Slaughter-house 
cases  (16  Wallace,  71),  reaffirming  the  negro's  right.  It  said,  "The 
negro,  having  by  the  XlVth  amendment,  been  declared  to  be  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  is  thus  made  a  voter  in  every  State  in  the  Union." 

But  when  the  loyal  women  of  Missouri,  appiehending  that  "every- 
body beneath  the  flag  were  made  citizensaud  votersby  theXIVth  amend- 
ment," through  Mrs.  Minor,  applied  to  the  Supreme  Court  for  protection 
in  the  exercise  of  that  same  right,  this  high  tribunal,  reversing  all  its 
former  decisions,  proclaims  State  sovereignty  superior  to  national  au- 
thority. This  it  does  in  this  strange  language:  "Being  born  in  the 
United  States,  a  woman  is  a  person  and  therefore  a  citizen  " — we  are 
much  obliged  to  them  for  that  definition  of  our  identity  as  persons — 
"  but  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  does  uot  confer  the  right  of 
suffrage  upoij  any  one."  And  then,  in  the  face  of  its  previous  decisions, 
the  court  declared :  "  The  United  States  has  no  voters  in  the  States  of 
its  own  creation  ;  "  that  the  elective  officers  of  the  United  States  are  all 
elected,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  State  voters.  It  remands  woman  to 
the  States  for  her  protection,  thus  giving  to  the  State  the  supreme  au- 
thority and  overthrowing  the  entire  results  of  the  war,  which  was  fought 
to  maintain  the  national  supremacy  over  any  and  all  subjects  in  which 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  are  in- 
volved. 

No  supreme  allegiance,  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  can  be  claimed 
for  or  by  a  government  if  it  has  no  citizens  of  its  own  creation,  and  con- 
stitutional amendments  cannot  confer  authority  over  matters  which  have 
no  existence  in  theConstitution.  Thus,  our  supreme  lawgivers  hold  them- 
selves up  for  obloquy  and  ridicule  in  their  interpretation  of  the  most  solemn 
rights  of  loyal  citizens,  and  make  our  constitutional  law  to  mean  anything 
or  nothing  as  the  case  may  be.  You  will  see,  gentlemen,  that  the  very 
point  which  the  South  contended  for  as  the  true  one  is  here  acknowledged 
to  be  the  true  one  by  the  Supreme  Court — that  of  State  l  ights  superior  to 
national  authority.  The  whole  of  the  recent  contest  hinged  upon  this. 
The  appeal  to  arms  and  the  constitutional  amendments  by  the  govern- 
ment were  to  estahlish  the  subordination  of  the  State  to  national  su- 
premacy, to  maintain  the  national  authority  over  any  and  all  subjects 
in  which  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States 
were  involved;  but  this  decision  in  Mrs.  Minor's  case  completely  nulli- 


16  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 

fies  the  supreme  authority  of  the  government,  and  gives  the  South  more 
than  has  hitherto  been  claimed  tor  it  by  the  advocates  of  State  rights* 
The  subject  of  the  franchise  is  thus  wholly  withdrawn  from  federal  su- 
pervision and  control.  If  u  the  United  States  has  no  citizens  of  its  own 
creation,7' of  course  no  supreme  allegiance  can  be  claimed  by  it  over 
the  various  citizens  of  the  States. 

The  constitutional  amendments  also  cannot  confer  authority  over  a 
matter  which  has  no  existence  in  the  Constitution.  If  it  has  no  voters, 
it  can  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  elections  and  voting  in  the 
States  ;  yet  the  United  States  invaded  the  State  of  New  York,  sent  its 
officers  there  to  try,  convict,  and  sentence  Miss  Anthony  for  exer- 
cising a  right  in  her  own  State  which  they  declared  that  the  Uni- 
ted States  had  no  jurisdiction  over.  They  send  United  States  troops 
into  the  South  to  protect  the  negro  in  his  right  to  vote,  and  then 
declare  they  have  no  jurisdiction  over  his  voting.  Then,  mark  the 
grave  results  which  may  and  can  follow  this  decisiou  and  legislation, 
I  do  not  imagine  that  the  Supreme  Court,  in  its  cowardly  dodging  of 
woman's  right  to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  which  citizenship  involves, 
designed  to  completely  abrogate  the  principles  established  by  the  recent 
coutest,  or  to  nullify  the  ensuing  legislation  on  the  subjeef.  But  it  cer- 
tainly has  done  all  this;  for  it  must  logically  follow  that  if  the  United 
States  has  no  citizens,  it  cannot  legislate  upon  the  rights  of  citizens, 
and  the  recent  amendments  are  devoid  of  authority.  It  has  well  been 
suggested  by  Mr.  Minor,  iu  his  criticism  of  the  decision,  that  if  members 
of  the  House  of  liepresentatives  are  elected  by  State  voters,  as  the 
Supreme  Court  has  thus  declared,  there  is  no  reason  why  States  may 
not  refuse  to  elect  them  as  in  18005  aQd  thus  deprive  Congress  of  its 
power.  And  if  a  sufficient  number  could  be  united  to  recall  at  their 
pleasure  these  Kepresentatives,  what  authority  has  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, under  this  decision,  for  coercing  them  into  subjection  or  refusing 
them  a  separation,  if  all  these  voters  in  the  States  desired  an  independ- 
ent existence  ?    None  whatever. 

Mr.  Garfield,  in  the  House,  in  his  speech  last  March,  calls  attention 
to  this  grave  subject,  but  does  not  allude  to  the  fact  that  the  Supreme 
Court  has  already  opened  the  door.  He  says:  'There  are  several  ways 
in  which  our  government  may  be  annihilated  without  the  firing  of  a  gun. 
For  example,  suppose  the  people  of  the  United  States  should  say,  we 
will  elect  no  Representatives  to  Congress.  Of  course  this  is  a  violeut 
supposition ;  but  suppose  that  they  do  not.  Is  there  any  remedy  ?  Does 
our  Constitution  provide  any  remedy  whatever  ?  In  two  years  there 
would  be  no  House  of  Representatives;  of  course,  no  support  of  the 
government  and  uo  government.  Suppose,  again,  the  States  should 
say,  through  their  legislatures,  we  will  elect  no  Senators.  Such  absten- 
tion alone  would  absolutely  destroy  this  government;  and  our  system 
provides  no  process  of  compulsion  to  prevent  it.  Again,  suppose  the 
two  houses  were  assembled  in  their  usual  order,  and  a  majority  of  one 
in  this  body  or  in  the  Senate  should  firmly  band  themselves  together 
and  say,  we  will  vote  to  adjourn  the  moment  the  hour  of  meeting  ar- 
rives, and  continue  so  to  vote  at  every  session  during  our  two  years  of 
existence — the  government  would  perish,  and  there  is  no  provision  of 
the  Constitution  to  prevent  it."  The  States  may  inform  their  Repre- 
sentatives that  they  can  do  this;  and,  under  this  position,  they  have 
the  power  and  the  right  so  to  do. 

Gentlemen,  we  are  now  on  the  verge  of  one  of  the  most  important 
Presidential  campaigns:  The  party  in  power  holds  its  reins  by  a  very 
uncertain  tenure.    If  the  decision  shall  favor  the  one  which  has  been 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


17 


on  the  anxious  bench  tor  lo!  these  twenty  years,  and  i;i  probation  until 
hope  has  well-nigh  departed,  what  may  be  its  action  if  invested  again 
with  the  control  of  the  destinies  of  this  nation  ?  Under  the  decision  of 
which  I  have  spoken,  the  Republican  judiciary  and  legislation  have 
placed  in  the  hands  of  that  party  a  club  which  can  break  in  pieces  their 
political  bonds  and  scatter  the  illogical  brain  a  of  their  adversaries  to  the 
four  winds.  Hurling  back  at  the  party  which  has  so  long  dominated 
over  it  the  principle  which  the  Republican  party  has  everywhere  bombas- 
tically enunciated,  it  may  cause  that  party  to  realize  that  there  is  a  vast 
difference  as  to  whose  ox  it  is  that  is  gored  in  the  coming  political  pasture. 
The  next  party  in  power  may  inquire,  and  answer,  by  what  right  and  how 
far  the  Southern  States  are  bound  by  the  legislation  in  which  they  had  no 
part  or  consent.  And  if  the  Supreme  Court  of  a  Republican  judiciary  now 
declares,  after  the  war,  after  the  constitutional  amendments,  that  federal 
suffrage  does  not  exist  and  never  had  an  existence  in  the  Constitution, 
it  follows  that  the  South  has  the  right  to  regulate  and  control  all  of  the 
questions  arising  upon  suffrage  in  the  several  States  without  any  inter- 
ference on  the  part  of  an  authority  which  declares  it  has  no  jurisdiction. 

Gentlemen,  an  able  writer  has  said.  "All  injustice  at  last  works  out  a 
loss.  The  great  ledger  of  nations  does  not  report  a  good  balance  for 
injustice.  It  has  always  met  fearful  losses.  The  irrepealable  law  of 
justice  will,  sooner  or  later,  grind  a  nation  to  powder,  if  it  fails  to  estab- 
lish that  equilibrium  of  allegiance  and  protection  which  is  the  essential 
end  of  all  government.  Woe  to  that  nation  which  thinks  lightly  of  the 
duties  it  owes  to  its  citizens  and  imagines  that  governments  are  not 
bound  by  moral  laws." 

It  was  the  tax  on  tea — woman's  drink  prerogative — which  precipitated 
the  rebellion  of  17 70.  To  allay  the  irritation  of  the  colonies,  all  taxes 
were  rescinded  save  that  on  tea,  which  was  left  to  indicate  KingGeorge's 
dominion.  But  our  revolutionary  lathers  and  mothers  said,  "No;  the 
tax  is  paltry,  but  the  principle  is  great;"  and  Eve,  as  usual,  pointed 
the  moral  for  Adam's  benefit.  A  most  suggestive  picture,  one  which 
aroused  the  ii*tensest  patriotism  of  the  colonies  (and  it  is  one  which  may, 
perhaps,  accompany  the  typical  snake-form  of  which  Mrs.  Gage  has 
spoken  to  you),  was  that  of  a  woman  pinioned  by  her  arms  to  the  ground 
by  a  British  peer,  with  a  British  red-coat  holding  her  throat  with  one 
hand,  and  with  the  other  forcibly  thrusting  down  her  throat  the  contents 
of  a  tea  pot,  which  she  heroically  spewed  back  in  his  face;  while  the 
figure  of  Justice,  in  the  distance,  with  veiled  face,  wept  over  this  prostrate 
Liberty.  Now,  geutlemen,we  might  well  adopt  a  similar  representation 
as  indicative  of  our  own  prostrate  liberty.  Here  is  Mrs.  Smith  [refer- 
ring to  Mrs.  Julia  Smith,  of  Glastonbury,  Conn. J,  whose  cow  has  beeu 
sold  every  year  by  the  government,  coutending  for  the  same  principle 
that  our  forefathers  fought  for,  that  of  resistance  to  taxation  without 
representation.  We  might  have  a  picture  of  a  cow,  with  an  American 
tax-collector  at  the  horns,  a  foreign-born  assessor  at  the  heels,  forcibly 
selling  the  birthright  of  an  American  citizen,  while  Julia  and  Abby 
Smith,  in  the  background,  with  veiled  faces,  weep  over  the  degeneracy 
of  Republican  leadership. 

The  same  tyrannical  spirit  of  King  George  is  manifest  to  day.  The 
rights  of  every  citizen,  save  of  women,  are  uow  jealously  guarded  aud 
freely  recognized.  Royalty,  on  Capitol  Hill,  in  complaisant  security, 
with  its  scepter  in  the  White  House  aud  its  throne  in  Justice's  Hall, 
shouts,  "The  king  is  dead,"  and  yet  we  must  say,  "Long  live  the  king." 
But,  forever  and  aye,  uneasy  is  the  head  that  wears  a  crown  :  and  dis- 
guised Indians — (one  lady  has  said  that  we  were  not  Indians:  but  we  may 

H.  Mis.  20  2 


18 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE, 


be  Indians,  gentlemen,  and  may  yet  take  some  scalps  on  Capitol  Hill) — 
disguised  Indians  may  yet  proclaim  wrecked  ships  for  that  royalty 
which  dares  bo  sail  upon  the  main  with  autocratic  powers. 

But  there  are  those  in  authority  in  the  government  who  do  not  believe 
in  this  decision  that  has  been  made  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  The  Attorney-General,  in  his  instructions  to  the  United  States 
marshals  and  their  deputies  or  assistants  in  the  Southern  States,  when 
speaking  of  the  countenance  and  support  of  all  good  citizens  of  the 
United  States  in  the  respective  districts  of  the  marshals,  remarks:  uIt 
is  not  necessary  to  say  that  it  is  upon  such  countenance  and  support 
that  the  United  States  mainly  rely  in  their  endeavor  to  enforce  the 
right  to  vote  which  they  have  given  or  have  secured."  You  notice  the 
phraseology.  Again,  he  says:  "The  laws  of  the  United  States  are 
supreme,  and  so,  consequently,  is  the  action  of  officials  of  the  United 
States  in  enforcing  them."  Secretary  Sherman  said,  in  his  speech  at 
Steubenville  on  the  6th  of  July  :  "The  negroes  are  free,  and  are  citizens 
and  voters.  That,  at  least,  is  a  part  of  the  Constitution  and  cannot  be 
changed."  Mr.  Hayes  has  been  quoted  here.  In  his  last  message  he 
has  quoted  the  same  expression  which  he  made  use  of  in  a  former  mes- 
sage. He  says :  "I  find  no  reason  to  qualify  the  opinion  I  expressed  in 
my  last  annual  message,  that  no  temporary  or  administrative  interests 
of  government  will  ever  displace  the  zeal  of  our  people  in  defense  of  the 
primary  rights  of  citizenship,  and  that  the  power  of  public  opinion  will 
ovenide  all  political  prejudices  and  all  sectional  and  State  attachments 
in  demanding  that  all  over  our  wide  territory  the  name  and  character 
of  citizen  of  the  United  States  shall  mean  one  and  the  same  thing,  and 
carry  with  them  unchallenged  security  and  respect." 

And  this  is  what  we  ask  of  you  this  morning,  "that  citizenship  shall 
mean  one  and  the  same  thing"  for  us,  women. 

In  conclusion,  gentlemen,  I  say  to  you  that  a  sense  of  justice  is  the 
sovereign  power  of  the  human  mind,  the  most  unyielding  of  any;  it  re- 
wards with  a  higher  sanction, it  punishes  with  a  deeper  agony  than  any 
earthly  tribunal.  It  never  slumbers,  never  dies.  It  constantly  utters 
and  demands  justice  by  the  eternal  rule  of  right,  truth,  and  equity. 
Aud  on  these  eternal  foundation  stones  we  stand. 

Crowning  the  dome  of  this  great  building  (which  was  erected,  as  Mrs. 
Gage  has  so  beautifully  aud  so  truthfully  said,  by  the  taxes  of  the  women 
of  the  United  States),  there  stands  the  majestic  figure  of  a  woman  repre- 
senting Liberty.  It  was  no  idealistic  thought  or  accident  of  vision  which 
gave  us  Liberty  prefigured  by  a  woman.  It  is  the  great  soul  of  the  uni- 
verse pointing  the  final  revelation  yet  to  come  to  humanity,  the  prophecy 
of  the  ages — the  last  to  be  first.  Not  more  certain  than  that  upon  the 
dome  of  the  Capitol  stands  the  majestic  figure  of  a  woman,  representing 
all  that  is  grand  and  noble  and  free  in  self-government,  is  it  that  in  the 
great  hereafter  there  shall  come  the  exaltatiou  of  a  glorious  woman- 
hood, coming  up  out  of  the  wilderness  of  the  past,  clear  as  the  sun,  fair 
as  the  moon,  powerful  in  her  righteousness  as  au  army  with  banners; 
and  that  humanity,  from  the  East  and  the  West,  and  the  North  and  the 
South,  sitting  at  her  feet,  shall  learn  that  Freedom  from  its  loftiest  heights 
is  Liberty  in  Woman. 

| Here  the  time  expired.] 

REMARKS  OF  MISS  SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY  OF  NEW  YORK. 

At  this  point  the  time  allotted  for  the  hearing  having  expired,  the 
chairman  protem  announced  an  extension  of  thirty  minutes  to  allow  Miss 
Anthony  to  address  the  committee. 

She  said  : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee :  I  did  not  propose  to 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


19 


make  any  argument,  but  simply  to  call  the  attention  of  the  committee 
to  the  fact  that  disfranchisement  is  not  only  political  degradation,  bat 
that  it  is  also  social,  moral,  and  industrial  degradation.  It  does  not 
matter  whether  the  class  affected  by  disfranchisement  is  that  of  ignorant, 
intemperate,  or  vicious  men — the  serfs  in  Russia,  the  negroes  on  our 
plantations  before  the  war,  the  Chinamen  on  our  Pacific  coast  to  day — 
or  the  intelligent,  educated  women  of  this  Republic,  disfranchisement 
works  precisely  the  same  results.  If  we  could  make  the  men  aud  women 
of  thisrepublic  realize  fora  momentthattheresults  of  disfranchisement  to 
woman  are  the  same  as  the  results  of  disfranchisement  to  all  the  different 
classes  of  men  I  have  named,  we  should  not  ha  ve  to  wait  for  another  Con- 
gress before  the  proposition  for  a  XVITH  amendment  would  be  submitted. 
But  the  difficulty  is  that  each  man  to  whom  we  appeal  fails  to  appreciate 
the  consequences  of  this  law  of  disfranchisement  or  to  realize  the  degrada- 
tion which  it  entails.  I  have  endeavored,  in  my  arguments,  to  show  that 
disfranchisement  is  the  cause  of  woman's  degradation  in  the  world  of 
labor  ;  that  it  is  because  of  it  that  she  is  doomed,  everywhere  doomed, 
to  remain  in  the  subordinate  departments  of  labor,  in  the  school-house, 
everywhere;  that  she  is  doomed  to  do  her  work  for  half  pay,  always  as 
a  subordinate,  as  I  have  said,  and  without  any  promotion.  If  men 
could  only  believe  that  the  fact  of  that  position  of  woman  in  the  world 
of  work  was  due  to  her  disfranchisement,  we  should  not  have  one  session 
of  Congress  pass  without  a  proposition  for  an  amendment.  But  the 
people  do  not  believe  it ;  and  yet,  as  some  of  the  ladies  have  shown 
here,  it  is  the  cause  of  woman's  degradation  in  labor  everywhere.  We 
are  here  to  ask  that  woman  may  have  the  power  of  the  ballot ;  that 
when  she  speaks  she  shall  be  respected ;  that  when  women  workers 
in  the  factories  and  shops,  the  teachers  in  the  school-houses,  shall  com- 
bine together  to  demand  better  wages  of  the  capitalists;  the  political  ed- 
itors of  the  newspapers  iu  a  community  will  feel  that  if  they  speak  on 
the  side  of  the  capitalist  and  against  the  working  women  their  party 
will  lose  the  votes  of  those  workiugwomen  at  the  next  election. 
With  theballotfiu  the  hands  of  all  the  millions  of  factory  women  aud  work- 
iugwomen in  this  nation,  you  can  perceive  at  once  that  they  have  a  power 
by  which  they,  like  the  workmen  of  the  nation,  can  decide  what  work  they 
will  do,  what  prices  they  will  be  paid,  and  what  positions  they  will  occupy. 
Then,  as  to  the  government  departments  of  which  some  one  here  has 
spoken,  the  facts  are  that  all  over  the  country  there  are  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  civil  service  offices;  that  many  of  the  women  of 
this  republic  are  well  qualified  to  do  the  work  in  those  departments, 
but  stand  very  little  chance  to  get  a  fair  quota  of  those  appoint- 
ments at  the  hands  of  members  of  Congress,  members  of  the 
state  legislatures,  and  u  the  powers  that  be"  everywhere — this, 
not  because  men  are  unjust,  not  because  many  of  the  members  of 
Congress  here  at  Washington  would  not  be  glad  to  have  women  ap- 
pointed to  the  various  positions  of  work,  but  because  it  is  an  utter  im- 
possibility, politically  speakiug,  for  them  to  secure  places.  Govern- 
ments cannot  afford  to  give  good  places,  good  work,  or  good  offices  to 
persons  who  cannot  help  to  make  government.  So  long  as  woman  holds 
in  her  hands  no  power  to  help  make  this  govcriinnMit.no  member  of 
Congress  can  afford  to  advocate  equal  pay  and  equal  place  for  women 
in  the  departments.  The  best  of  oar  friends,  as  members  of  this  com- 
mittee, know  that,  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  when  wc  have  asked  them 
to  ordain  that  women  workers  shall  be  paid  equal  wages  with  men,  they 
have  told  us  that  to  pass  such  a  law,  and  enforce  it,  would  be  to  drive 
all  the  women  out  of  the  departments,  because  the  onl\  excU8«  that 


20 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


the  government  now  has  for  employing  them  is  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
economy  to  the  government.  Now,  what  we  ask  is  that 'women  shall 
have  this  power  of  appeal  to  the  self-interest  of  the  government  office- 
holders and  the  government  itself.  We  ask  that  womau  shall  have  the 
ballot  that  she  may  come  within  the  body-politic,  and  there  become  joint 
heir  with  her  brothers  for  all  the  good  things  that  are  to  be  disposed  of 
at  the  hands  of  the  government. 

This  disfranchisement  is  not  only  an  industrial  and  a  social,  but  a 
moral  degradation.  Why,  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  did  you  every 
stop  to  think  of  what  disfranchisement  says  to  each  and  every  one  of 
these  women  here  to-day  and  to  each  and  every  one  of  the  women  under 
this  proud  flag  'I  It  says,  non  compos,  your  judgment  is  not  sound,  your 
opinions  are  not  worthy  to  be  counted  up  in  what  men  call  "  public  sen- 
timent," "  the  crystallizing  of  the  popular  will  into  law."  While  that  is 
true  of  all  women,  let  me  put  before  you  the  other  side.  Enfranchise- 
ment says  to  every  man,  poor  or  rich,  ignorant  or  learned,  drunk  or 
sober — to  every  man  outside  the  State's  prison  or  the  lunatic  asylum — 
"  your  judgment  is  sound,  your  opinion  is  worthy  to  be  counted."  And 
you  gentlemen,  all  of  you,  recognize  rhe  fact  that  the  equal  counting  and 
equal  recognition  of  men's  opinions  establishes  in  this  country  that  good 
thing  which  we  call  "  political  equality" — each  and  every  man  equal  to 
each  and  every  other  man.  The  opinion  of  the  most  ignorant  ditch- 
digger  in  the  country,  on  election  day,  counts  for  just  as  much  as  that  of 
the  richest  and  proudest  millionaire.  It  is  a  good  thing,  gentlemen  ; 
and  we,  women  suffragists,  believe  in  the  principle  of  democracy 
and  republicanism,  in  the  equal  recognition  of  all  men  ;  but  while 
that  principle  establishes  the  equal  and  just  recognition  of  ail  men 
among  men,  we  at  the  same  time  recognize  that  it  establishes 
between  the  sexes  that  hateful  thing  of  inequality;  that  it  makes 
all  men  sovereigns  and  all  women  subjects;  that  it  makes  all  men, 
politically,  superiors  and  all  women  inferiors.  And  there  is  no  amount 
of  training,  education,  or  discipline  that  can  ever  educate  an  ignorant 
man  or  a  small  boy  to  the  belief  that  that  is  not  the  discrimination. 
This  ignoring  of  women's  opinions  politically  is  not  grounded  upon  in- 
tellectual inferiority.  The  more  ignorant  the  man  the  better  he  feels 
convinced  that  he  knows  more  than  the  most  intelligent  woman  in  the 
country.  Intelligent  men  know  that  the  great  work  of  this  republic  from 
the  beginning  has  been  the  sloughing  off,  little  by  little,  of  the  old  feu- 
dalistic  ideas  of  caste,  until  at  last  we  have  this  grand  idea  of  seif-gov- 
ernment.  We  women  know  that  those  who  are  engaged  in  this  move- 
ment are  struggling  with  might  and  main  to  lift  the  women,  through  the 
XVIth  amendment,  upon  the  same  platform  with  intelligent,  cultivated 
man,  who  does  respect  an  intelligent,  cultivated  woman,  whom  the  ig- 
norant man  does  not  comprehend  and  has  no  appreciation  of. 

I  will  give  you  an  illustration  of  my  meaning.  There  are  three  ladies 
in  this  room  to-day  from  the  State  of  Iowa.  One  of  those  ladies  pays 
more  taxes  in  the  city  of  Maquoketa,  in  which  she  resides,  than  do  the 
Whole  t  welve  men  who  are  the  membersof  the  common  council  of  hercity. 
Those  three  women,  in  the  city  of  Maquoketa,  and  county  of  Jackson, 
have  been  at  the  very  head  and  front  ol  the  Women's  Christian  Tem- 
perance organization  in  that  city.  They  have  prayed,  petitioned,  and 
done  everything  to  shut  up  the  grog-shops  in  their  community  which  a 
disfranchised  class  can  do — which  is  exactly  nothing.  On  election  morn- 
ing, the  question  of  license  or  no  license  is  to  be  voted  on  in  that  city. 
My  friend,  Mrs.  Allen,  and  other  ladies  who  work  with  her  have  paid  into 
the  treasury  of  the  county  of  Jackson  no  small  amount  of  taxes  for  the 
support  of  the  victims  of  the  idiocy  and  crime  which  are  the  outgrowth  of 


i 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


21 


the  liquor  traffic.  My  friend,  Mrs.  Allen,  is  standing  on  the  street  on  election 
morning-,  and  in  another  quarter  there  stands  an  ignorant  man,  a  man 
who  by  his  drunkenness  has  caused  to  be  sold  under  the  hammer  the 
farm  he  inherited  from  his  father,  whose  every  dollar  of  property  is  gone, 
whose  wife  and  children  are  houseless  and  homeless  and  he  a  pauper 
in  the  county  house,  supported  at  the  public  expense.  He  knows  that 
three-fourths  of  the  money  taken  from  Mrs.  Allen's  and  those  other 
ladies'  taxes  goes  to  support  him  and  others  like  him  in  his  and  their 
necessities.  He  looks  at  that  woman ;  he  sneers  at  her  educatiou,  her 
standing,  her  line  clothes,  her  self-respect,  at  everything  she  possesses  ;  he 
envies  her;  but  at  last  he  bethinks  himself.  He  folds  his  arms  and  with 
utter  complacency  exclaims,  "  Yez  can  sing,  yez  can  shout,  yez  can  pray, 
yez  can  petition  agin  rum;  but,  be  jabers,  yez  can't  go  to  the  ballot- 
box  and  vote  agin  it.  I  can  vote  for  free  whisky  and  you  can't  help 
yoursehTes."  Now,  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  do  you  not  see  how 
that  little  fact,  that  that  ignorant  pauper's  opinion  is  thus  respected  and 
counted  that  day,  while  that  intelligent  tax-paying  woman's  opinion  is 
ignored,  educates  that  ignoramus  into  a  feeling  of  superiority  over  that 
woman  ?  Nothing  bat  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  saying  that  that  woman's  opinion  shall  be  respected  and  counted, 
will  ever  educate  that  man  to  respect  her.  The  secret,  underlying  cause 
of  the  disrespect  which  men  often  show  toward  women — the  slighting 
manner  in  which  coarse,  rude  men  are  wont  to  speak  of  woman — lies  in 
the  fact  of  woman's  opinion  being  ignored  in  the  deciding  of  all  the  great 
questions  involving  the  conditions  or  surroundings  of  society  and  the 
government. 

Then  look  at  the  boys  of  this  generation.  Before  the  boy's  head 
reaches  the  level  of  the  table,  he  learns  that  he  is  one  of  the  superior 
class  and  that  when  he  is  twenty-one  years  old  he  will  make  laws  for 
Mrs.  Saxon,  Mrs.  Gage,  and  all  these  ladies  who  are  mothers.  His 
mother  teaches  him  all  the  requisites  for  success  in  after  life.  She 
says:  u  My  son,  you  must  not  chew,  nor  smoke,  nor  gamble,  nor  swear, 
nor  be  a  libeitine ;  you  must  be  a  good  man."  The  boy  looks  his  mother 
in  the  face,  unbelievingly,  and,  perchance,  at  his  father,  who  is  guilty 
of  every  one  of  the  vices  which  the  mother  says  he  must  avoid  if  he 
would  become  a  great  man.  Perhaps  he  sees  the  minister  of  his  mother's 
church  walkiug  the  street  with  a  cigar  in  his  mouth.  Theu  he  looks  to 
Congress.  It  may  have  been  a  slander — nevertheless  it  was  a  newspa- 
per report,  aud  I  use  it  as  an  illustration — that  the  Forty  fifth  Congress, 
at  its  close,  had  but  one  sober  man  on  its  floor,  aud  he  was  a  black  man 
(Cain)  of  South  Carolina.  I  do  not  say  that  that  was  true,  but  1  give 
it  as  I  heard  it.  If  the  boy  goes  iuto  court,  he  sees  the  judge,  with  a 
good-sized  spittoon  by  his  side  and  half  tilled.  Now,,  what  does  the  boy 
say  when  he  looks  up  to  his  mother  ?  He  says,  u  O,  nonsense  !  mother, 
you  don't  know  what  you  are  talking  about  ;  you're  only  a  woman." 

If  you  would  have  that  boy  respect  his  mother,  your  laws  will  first 
have  to  respect  her.  Laws  do  more  to  educate  and  develop  public 
seutimeut  than  you,  whose  business  it  is  to  make  laws  and  constitutions, 
are  doing  to  day.  Therefore,  as  a  matter  of  educating  ignorant  men 
and  small  boys  in  a  just  and  respectful  appreciation  of  woman,  I  ask 
you  not  to  bury  this  petition  of  ours,  but  to  do  something  to  awaken  an 
agitatiou  and  discussion  of  our  request  on  the  floors  of  Congress. 

Allow  me  to  make  one  further  observation.  Since  the  days  of  Fre- 
mont and  Jessie,  women  have  been  very  politely  invited  to  attend  Re- 
publican meetings.  All  of  you  Republicans  know  how  the  women 
filled  up  your  empty  benches  in  those  days  and  made  your  conventions 


22 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


look  very  respectable  indeed.  By  and  by  tbe  Democrats  came  into  line, 
and  tbe  conventions  of  botb  parties  often  contained  as  many  women 
as  men.  Tben  tbe  poor  stump  orators  are  put  to  tbeir  wit's  end  upon 
the  woman  question.  Tbey  can,  without  difficulty,  frame  paragraphs  to 
suit  every  class  of  human  beings  who  have  a  ballot;  tbey  can  appeal 
alike  to  tbe  rumsellers  and  the  temperance  men,  to  the  irishmen,  the 
Germans,  the  Swedes,  the  Bohemians  and,  since  the  XVtb  amend- 
ment, to  the  negroes.  Every  politician  can  promptly  sbow  why  his  own 
party  is  the  one  for  which  the  particular  class  to  which  be  addresses 
himself  should  vote.  Finally  he  comes  to  the  inevitable  woman  and, 
realizing  that  he  must  say  something  on  that  point,  says:  "I  am  glad 
to  see  the  ladies  here  to-night,  am  always  glad  to  have  them  in  my  au- 
diences; tbey  are  a  sort  of  inspiration,  euable  me  to  make  a  better 
speech  :  the  fact  is,  gentlemen,  I  rather  like  tbe  ladies,  for  my  mother 
was  a  woman— God  bless  her."  Now,  gentlemen,  don't  you  believe  tbat 
if  under  those  bonnets  there  were  voters,  those  voters  would  soon  cause 
that  orator  and  his  party,  whether  in  or  out  of  power,  to  suddenly  dis- 
cover there  were  some  brains  under  there  ?  You  see  that  we  want  this 
power  to  appeal  to  tbe  instinct  of  self-interest  in  this  government;  and 
if  this  committee  does  not  do  itself  the  honor  to  report  a  proposition  for 
a  XVItb  amendment,  some  succeeding  committee  will  do  itself  tbat 
honor.  Tbe  tide  is  moving,  it  cannot  be  swept  back.  I  beg  you,  in  tbe 
name  of  justice,  humanity,  and  mercy,  that  you  will  not  keep  woman 
coming  back  here  for  tbe  next  thirty  years  as  sbe  has  been  kept  coming 
here  for  the  last  thirty  years. 

I  hope  too,  that  you  will  help  us  all  you  can.  We,  who  are  agitating 
this  movement,  are  not  a  moneyed  Mass.  I  trust  that  you  will  submit 
a  resolution  directing  that  the  reports  of  this  bearing  shall  be  printed 
at  tbe  government  expense.  I  would  also  urge  the  importance  of  your 
presenting  the  proposition  for  a  XVItb  Amendment  before  Congress  be- 
cause it  will  create  an  agitation  and  discussion  which  may  educate  not 
only  the  members  of  Congress  but  their  constituencies  on  this  question. 

Mr.  Lapham,  of  New  York.  I  have  understood  that  your  association 
desired  to  have  an  act  of  incorporation. 

Miss  Anthony.  It  is  true  that  we  desire  incorporation.  When  tbe 
rich  Miss  Dorseys  and  others  all  over  tbe  country  take  it  into  their 
heads  to  make  us  a  bequest,  w;e  should  be  in  a  condition  to  hold  any 
such  bequest  according  to  law.  We  have  framed  a  bill  looking  to  the 
chartering  of  our  organization  that  we  may  become  a  legal  personage, 
and  I  ask  of  you  to  give  the  measure  Avhatever  of  aid  you  may  be  able 
to  give  it. 

Mrs.  Sara  A.  Spencer  of  Washington,  D.  C.  I  desire  to  thank  the 
committee  for  their  courtesy  to  the  women  of  the  United  States  as  rep- 
resented here  by  delegates  from  twenty-two  States.  It  was  in  answer  to 
my  urgent  appeal  in  behalf  of  our  association  that  the  committee  granted 
this  hearing.  All  the  delegates  desired  to  be  beard  ;  but  for  the  con  veu- 
ience  of  the  committee,  tbe  brief  time  was  apportioned  among  those  who 
represented  different  sections  of  the  country  and  different  phases  of  our 
question.  1  would  now  ask  you,  gentlemen,  to  print  the  record  we  have 
made,  that  it  may  come  before  tbe  376  members  of  Congress.  We  can  ex- 
pect this  only  by  your  courtesy  but,  as  you  have  printed  l0,U00copies  o(a 
memorial  service  held  over  a  dead  man,  we  ask  you  to  piiul  a  like  num- 
ber of  copies  of  an  argument  in  behalf  of  ten  millions  of  living  women 
citizens. 

At  this  point,  the  hearing  having  been  concluded,  the  committee  ad- 
journed. 

C 


